For someone who loves makeup, I am still a bit lost when it comes to the world of makeup brushes. I have learned some of the basic things to look for in a good brush such as one that doesn't have hair fallout as well as deposits product evenly onto the skin, but I have certainly never been one to care all that much about the fine details of what goes into creating a makeup brush. Now, that blogging has given me the push to play with makeup more, I find myself asking for brushes with VERY SPECIFIC purposes and wonder if I am crazy. I used to think spending $20 on a brush was ridiculous and now I am spending $50. I have even been tempted to spend $100 "if necessary"!

Luckily (?) there are collaborations like the one with SEPHORA PRO and the Hakuho-do brush craftsmen of Japan to satisfy my quest for brush purpose as well as wow me with 200 year old traditional brush-making techniques that are nothing short of impressive. Over the holidays, I received my first hakuho-do + SEPHORA PRO brush in the form of the Fan Cheek Brush* ($50.00 CDN) and wondered if I would fall in love with it. Well, lemme tell ya...

The Fan Cheek Brush, comes in a beautiful red box, and is a multi-purpose brush for applying blush, bronzer or any type of contour. The brush shape is flat on either side allowing for precision when applying product. The bristles are synthetic, soft and fluffy and full of volume. You can feel that the ferrule is firmly attached to the bristles and will not be coming loose anytime soon.

The very first thing I noticed about this brush was the fact that whatever product I picked up was fully deposited onto my face. How do I know this? When I looked back down at the brush, the bristles were clean! When I looked at my face, especially with blush, it was EXACTLY where I had placed it and evenly dispersed across my cheeks. Whenever I read that a brush is "precise" in application, I envision product being concentrated in one area, but this was certainly not the case with this brush!

Final verdict: I would have expected this brush to retail for a hell of a lot more considering the quality and the attention to detail. A multipurpose brush is something I would definitely spend more money on and now I wish I had gotten an eye brush while they were still in stock last year. I will treasure this Fan Cheek Brush and house it in its red box because a brush like this needs to have its own pedestal to rest on.

The SEPHORA PRO hakuho-do Cheek Fan Brush is still available at www.sephora.ca